No. 2 was Minneapolis-St. Paul, with a 6 percent increase. Third place was the Seattle area, with a 5.3 percent increase, followed closely by San Diego and Houston, with 5.2 and 5.1 percent increases, respectively.

For St. Louis, the foreign-born gains reflect an increase of about 10,623 new residents. The region as a whole is home to 2.8 million residents; just 129,559 of them are foreign-born. So while our numerical gains weren't nearly as high as many other large cities, the percentage increase shows a very real jump.